Malorie Blackman, the prize-winning author who has become Britain's first black children's laureate, believes education secretary Michael Gove's proposed new history curriculum is "dangerous" and risks turning black and minority ethnic children against education.

"I understand you need to learn about Henry VIII but when I was young I wanted to learn about something that felt more relevant."

Blackman, whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said she had spent much of her 20s teaching herself black history and said if children are not taught about black historical figures along with heroes such as Lord Nelson, they might be turned off school altogether.

"I do feel it's very dangerous if you make it seem like history is the province of a certain segment of society. History should belong to and include all of us. The curriculum needs to appeal to as many children as possible or a number of them could become disenchanted with education because they feel it's not relevant."

Blackman is the eighth children's laureate, inheriting the role from the Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, who presented her with the laureate's medal and cheque for £15,000 at a ceremony in London on Tuesday. In a selection process overseen by the charity Booktrust, the laureate is one of those invited to nominate a successor and Donaldson said Blackman had been her choice.

Speaking to the Guardian, Blackman highlighted a lack of diversity among children's writers and a lack of black and Asian children in picture books. As a child growing up in the 1960s she loved comics and books including Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School stories, but a career as a writer was not on her radar because she never came across black writers or characters. "I still remember feeling I was totally invisible in the world of literature."

Blackman, who has written books for all ages but is best known for her Noughts and Crosses series for teenagers, described the prejudice she experienced as a child in south London, where a teacher at her girls' grammar school told her not to apply to read English at university because "black people don't become teachers".

She took business studies at a polytechnic instead, but dropped out. Years later she was inspired to write the Noughts and Crosses books about racial segregation by her fury at the death of Stephen Lawrence and the way his family was treated by the police, she said.

She spoke out strongly in support of multiculturalism and rejected suggestions that the idea has run its course. "I don't think we've gone far enough with it in terms of making sure children know about different cultures. If you want people to feel they are part of society, it's about making it more inclusive.

"We need more books that are specifically about the British BME [black and minority ethnic] experience and that's why I bang the drum for more diversity and not having this idea that if a book has got pictures of a black or Asian child then it's going to have a limited market."

The main focus of her two years as laureate would be to "get more children reading and make reading irresistible in all its forms". She said she would stand up for libraries, comics and technology, and for older children and teens who had received less attention from previous laureates.

"I can't be doing with this stuffiness about only reading classics," she said in her acceptance speech, recalling how one of her teachers had called comics "rubbish".

Abigail Campbell, chair of the steering group that selects the laureate, said there had been "overwhelming support" for Blackman and a sense that "her time has come". Her latest novel, Noble Conflict, is a dystopian thriller aimed at teens.

Donaldson's husband, Malcolm, who went with her on a seven-week tour of public libraries that was the highlight of her two years as laureate, warned that some of the glamour of Blackman's new role might rub off. "I had to have six frets on my guitar replaced – they were completely worn out from busking to the signing queue. I felt like a rock star," he said.